Mom: My sons aren't racist

The mother of two men charged with a racially motivated attack on two black teenagers Tuesday in Medford said her boys are not racists and worries they may be targeted in jail.

By chris conrad

The mother of two men charged with a racially motivated attack on two black teenagers Tuesday in Medford said her boys are not racists and worries they may be targeted in jail.

Loren Devlin of White City dismisses the hate crime charge against her sons Shaun Patrick Temple, 21, and Kevin Kaleb Temple, 24, who were arrested on intimidation, assault, harassment and disorderly conduct charges. Intimidation charges apply when victims of crimes are targeted because of race, color, religion, country of origin or sexual orientation.

"It was 110 percent not a hate crime," Devlin said. "If my boys were racists they would try and attack every black man they see."

Margot Shanklin, Kevin Temple's girlfriend of four years, said both wear shirts depicting rappers Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg and enjoy rap music.

"It was just a fight, nothing more," Shanklin said. "They both have black and Hispanic friends."

Whether the brothers are racists is irrelevant to the case, Medford police Lt. Tim Doney said. The hate crime charge stems from racial slurs witnesses say the Temples used during the brawl.

"These guys may not be racists," Doney added, "but when the slurs come out it certainly ramps up the charges."

Witnesses at the scene in downtown Medford told Medford police that two black teenagers, 19-year-old Dionte Cooper from Sun City, Calif., and 17-year-old Mike Monsoor from Murrieta, Calif., were walking north on the west side of Riverside Avenue with two young, white women when the Temples drove by in a van and shouted racial slurs.

The van pulled into a parking lot at the Red Lion Hotel and the Temples ran across the street to physically confront the young men while yelling more racial slurs, Doney said.

"It was crazy," Monsoor said iThursday. "They basically stopped traffic in that van to yell at us. Once they got out it was 'n——-' this and 'n——-' that."

Monsoor and Cooper arrived in Jackson County a week ago to visit their girlfriends. Neither had spent much time in Medford before the fight, they said.

"We were just walking to the mall when these dudes went out of their way to cause trouble," Cooper said.

Monsoor and Cooper said the Temples never landed a shot. Neither had cuts or bruises.

Refuting claims made on the Mail Tribune's online forum that the Temples' attack was in retaliation for an alleged week-old assault on the two brothers and several others, Monsoor, Cooper, Devlin and Shanklin all said Tuesday's confrontation was an isolated incident.

Cooper and Monsoor couldn't speculate on the motivation behind the confrontation.

"Who knows, they may not have been racists," Monsoor said. "We never saw these guys before this. I think they were looking for the most hateful thing to say to draw us out."

They say the incident has not clouded their perception of Southern Oregon. Both plan on returning to the area at some point after their visit ends later this month.

"This doesn't make me thing differently of the area," Monsoor said. "There are just some people out there who have no life."